The Boston University men’s lacrosse team made program history with its ninth win of the season against Lafayette College on Saturday afternoon at Nickerson Field, setting the program record of most season wins since the program was established four years ago.
The Leopards (1-7, 1-4 Patriot League) got the scoring underway just two minutes into the first quarter with a goal scored by junior Will McCarthy, assisted by senior Kevin Lewis.
Senior midfielder Cal Dearth brought the Terriers (9-1, 3-1 Patriot League) to a tie with a goal assisted by junior attacker Ryan Hilburn.
BU stole the lead less than a minute later as Adam Schaal netted his third goal of the season for the Terriers.
Lafayette tied the game once again with a goal scored by senior Eric Joseph who managed to sneak the ball past senior goalkeeper Christian Carson-Banister.
This was quickly answered by a goal for the Terriers as Schaal assisted junior attacker Jack Wilson in his 17th goal of the season.
The Leopards tallied two more goals before the end of the first quarter, scored by Joseph and Lewis, to take back the lead heading into the second quarter.
The Terriers opened up the second quarter with junior midfielder Hayden Ruiz’s fourth goal of the season, equalizing the score once again and beginning the Terriers’ eight-goal scoring streak against Lafayette.
Wilson scored the fifth goal for BU off of an assist from senior attacker Pat Myers, then assisted senior long-stick midfielder Greg Wozniak on a bounce shot in his first goal of the season to increase the Terriers’ lead to two goals.
BU head coach Ryan Polley was pleased with his team’s play in the second quarter, but nonetheless saw room for improvement.
The second quarter “was a turning point in the game,” Polley said. “I thought we were playing with some good energy, guys were playing hard, but we weren’t really executing defensively.”
The Terriers scored their seventh goal on a man-up opportunity when Hilburn assisted senior attacker and midfielder Ryan Johnston for his second goal of the season.
The next three goals came from Hilburn, sophomore attacker and midfielder Brendan Homire, and freshman midfielder John MacLean to close the second quarter with a six-goal lead on Lafayette.
“I think we were playing hard the entire game,” Polley said. “But our execution [in the second quarter] was a little bit better on offense.”
BU had the first goal of the third quarter from freshman defenseman and long-stick midfielder Chase Levesque. The Leopards broke the Terriers’ scoring streak with a goal of their own scored by Lewis, tallying his fourth of five points earned for Lafayette.
Dearth scored his second goal of the game and his 20th goal of the season off of an assist from senior long-stick midfielder Henry Lee to end the third quarter.
The Terriers scored once again to open up the final quarter with a goal by MacLean, but quickly found the ball in the back of their net with Lafayette’s sixth goal scored by senior Jason Sands.
The Leopards scored again on a man-up opportunity after a penalty was called on the Terriers’ Wozniak, as sophomore Conor Walters brought the score to 13-7.
MacLean scored on an empty net to tally his third goal of the game for the Terriers, followed by the last goal of the game by the Terriers’ junior attacker Kyle Parsons, cementing the final score as 15-7.
“One of the things that makes us tough to guard is we’re so balanced,” Polley said. “If we continue to share the ball and guys continue to step up and make shots, certainly we’re hard to defend against.”
